{"id":1611,"date":"2012-05-22T18:26:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T23:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/?p=1611"},"modified":"2012-05-22T18:26:13","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T23:26:13","slug":"the-ocean-of-being","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/","title":{"rendered":"The Ocean of Being"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p>If I don\u2019t try to behold the Universe,<\/p>\n<p>to see how the Universe holds me,<\/p>\n<p>I will be a pinball in the game of life:<\/p>\n<p>ever-reacting, trying to ring bells<\/p>\n<p>and not fall into holes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>What if I\u2019m a bird in an ever-growing<\/p>\n<p>forest? Or a wave in a bottomless ocean?<\/p>\n<p>Or a root in a soil that I can\u2019t see?<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the soul is a window\u2014<\/p>\n<p>How to keep the window clean?<\/p>\n<p>How to open the window?<\/p>\n<p>How to go outside and<\/p>\n<p>still be inside?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If I don\u2019t try to behold the Universe, to see how the Universe holds me, I will be a pinball in the game of life: ever-reacting, trying to ring bells and not fall into holes. \u00a0 What if I\u2019m a bird in an ever-growing forest? Or a wave in a bottomless ocean? Or a root [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2538,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marks-weekly-reflections","category-poetry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Ocean of Being<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If I don\u2019t try to behold the Universe, to see how the Universe holds me, I will be a pinball in the game of life: ever-reacting, trying to ring bells and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Ocean of Being\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If I don\u2019t try to behold the Universe, to see how the Universe holds me, I will be a pinball in the game of life: ever-reacting, trying to ring bells and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Field Notes on Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/MarkNepo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-22T23:26:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Nepo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@marknepo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Nepo\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/\",\"name\":\"The Ocean of Being\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-22T23:26:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-05-22T23:26:13+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#\/schema\/person\/8dd9a050df7e544bc3c7dc9a587321d5\"},\"description\":\"If I don\u2019t try to behold the Universe, to see how the Universe holds me, I will be a pinball in the game of life: ever-reacting, trying to ring bells and\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/2012\/05\/22\/the-ocean-of-being\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Ocean of Being\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/\",\"name\":\"Field Notes on Living\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#\/schema\/person\/8dd9a050df7e544bc3c7dc9a587321d5\",\"name\":\"Mark Nepo\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/fieldnotesonliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f01b382981d0a1914ee5686c03225bdb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f01b382981d0a1914ee5686c03225bdb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Nepo\"},\"description\":\"Mark Nepo is a poet and spiritual teacher who has taught in the fields of poetry and spirituality for over 50 years. 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